a frost spec?Follow

So I have a 70 DK and he is unholy. I play him with a friend.
However my friend has not been on in awhile (breaking from game), so I decided to create a new on on my main horde realm (the 70 is Human).

I just got done raising my mining and herb to 300 and I am ready to level the DK. At the moment he is Unholy and lvl 60.
My guild has plenty of DPS, and my main (in the guild) is a Hunter.
They however are lacking in the Tank and Healer section.
I don't like being a healer, so I decided I would give Tanking a try.

I know each tree can tank, but from what I've seen, frost seems to be the best?

So I'm looking for a good spec that I can still level with (I play PvE :p), learn a rotation, and get the feel for tanking.

So I'm hoping you all can help me ^-^?

3/3 Morbidity is so ridiculously unnecessary as a Frost Tank. If you are using it every 15 seconds, your rotations suck and your DpS do as well.

And Acclimation and Frost Aura are both extremely preference-based. A. They only mitigate against casters. B. They don't offer THAT much mitigation. C. You just don't need both. Frost Aura doesn't stack with other resistance auras (and I don't think it stacks with MotW). Acclimation is far superior anyway, because on bosses that use magic of one school frequently, you will have it up (with 1-3 applications) for most of the fight.

Epidemic is highly useful, because it keeps your diseases from expiring before you use your last abilities in a rotation.

Check out Elitist Jerks, they have a lot of tanking builds.

Yeah, that spec is rough.

First of all, I want to slap you for not taking the KEY TANKING TALENTS in each. If this is a leveling build... I can pseudo forgive it. But, honestly, they are useful enough in all situations that every tank build, leveling or no, should at least have 2/3.

And you need Frigid Deathplate.

And Runic Power Mastery sucks (for Frost tanks).

And Icy Talons is only useful without a Shaman.

And, personally, Death Chill is useless to me. KM procs WAY too much for me to bother with DC.

And your first spec is THROWING AWAY POINTS by putting them in both Death Rune Mastery and Annihilation. You will be using Oblit 90% of the time--don't bother making DS give DRs unless you go Blood.

And Butchery is a waste of 2 points (it isn't necessarily bad, but there are SO MANY BETTER PLACES to put them).

Here is a build with Icy Talons. If you don't take it (and I suggest you don't if possible), just put them somewhere else (meaning, put 5 in Killing Machine and that last one wherever you want). I'd put it in Acclimation, but Death Chill or Rune Tap (or even Ravenous Dead) are all fine.

Oblit first regardless. There is no reason to delay using the runes over a FS. (It may be small, but it is always nice to have your runes coming up sooner, rather than later, in case you need them. Tanks have more abilities to use, so they want to ensure this happens).

Also, you won't have RP to FS every cycle unless your avoidance is way too low. RS should always take priority over FS, unless your threat is way ahead.

I would:

PS>IT>Oblit>BS>BS>FS>Oblit>Oblit>Oblit>FS, repeat. Also be sure to use your Blood Tap and Empower Rune Weapon CDs. Replace Oblits with HBs when possible in group tanking.



IT>PS>Pest>Pest>HB>FS>HB>Oblit>HB>FS, repeat. There is a slight delay here, which is annoying, but the HB is superior. If you get a Rime Proc, Oblit (first).

The second Pest is to be done on a secondary target, to refresh diseases on the main target (and the group, though they only got a tic in), do damage and, most importantly, give a DR.

BB, as it stands now, is a waste for us. The loss of a DR really sucks, and the damage isn't much higher than Pest, and it won't refresh the diseases.

Oh, and when Blood Tap is going to be up, I do this:

PS>IT>Pest>HB>BT>Pest>BS (or Pest, if you want more group aggro).

This doesn't interrupt the rotation, because you will wait for a second on your HB CD the next cycle anyway. You also have the option of using it to Rune Tap, and then doing a HB>BS>HB the next cycle, with a BB using that Blood Rune (only time it is useful, as you will be refreshing diseases seconds later, anyway, and don't need the DR that time around).



It messes with EVERYONE'S rotations. This is part of the reason why I hate Morbidity. A. You should never need a 15 second DnD as Frost or Unholy. B. It prevents an HB, which is 3K+ threat on each target every 5 seconds. C. It wastes 3 points.



Frost rotations don't really change from the time you get Oblit on (unless your build means you don't have FS yet). You CAN choose to forgo PS, but I like to use it just for the extra oomph on my Oblits in group scenarios (and it IS more AoE threat).

It also has what is, in my opinion, the cleanest tanking rotation. You basically will always have the opportunity to use 3 HBs per two refreshes. And this is without sacrificing a lot of main target threat (for groups with, say, Rogues).

Try to aim your ERW for when the HB CD will be coming up. Or just after you finish your 3 Oblits on a single target rotation (giving you two more Oblits and 2 BSs immediately)

Unlike Unholy which will only finish a group rotation with 1 DR at best. :( Doesn't help me. >.<


This may be really jumbled--I'm tired. If you are confused, say so and I'll try to be more coherent in the morning.

[NOTE]

Tanking is much less strict than DpSing, because our role isn't as defined by numbers. We have more abilities that need using, which trigger GCDs, which throw things off. The rotation is a guide. As a tank, you NEED to be dynamic. If UA comes back up, you're going to be losing an Oblit that turn. But, that doesn't mean you need to just not use the rune! PS! Occasionally (and it sucks, but it does happen), things go awry and you will have to DnD or resart the rotation early--just go with it!

The most important things in AoE tanking is to keep FF on all the mobs, and use HB whenever possible. After that, just be sure to keep track of them all, and produce as much single-target hate as possible. Oh, and try to switch around if possible (this is just too hard for some, especially if they have lag or smaller monitors). Oblit is nice threat, spread it around.^^

Happy hunting.

Because you enjoy losing 10% damage on IT?

Well, you don't HAVE to use PS.

However, you will get the same number of FU abilities with PS as you will without it, and you are losing damage on your BSs and Oblits without it, not to mention the 10% loss on Icy Touch (and Frost Strike/HB on the off-chance your FF wore off before using them).

There really isn't any reason not to use it. It is additional AoE threat through BP, it will boost your single-target Threat and you don't just waste runes.

Not using it doesn't give ANY more FU abilities over using it. All it does is lower your damage and threat put out.

On multi-target rotations, it isn't that important. One one of your FU abilities in two cycles will benefit from it directly. But it IS more damage, and thus threat. And you can't really use the rune for anything else. And it COULD be the difference between having and not having to use DnD--which causes rotations to utterly implode (and you will be using PS with that).

On single-target rotations, it is absolutely necessary. There is no reason to be lowering your Oblit and BS damage by several hundred just because you didn't feel like using PS. It isn't like you can spam those abilities anyway--taking 1.5 seconds to boost them all and add disease damage (not even counting PS damage) is more than worth it.

The only rotation it should never be used in is Diseaseless Blood, for obvious reasons.

This is, of course, only discussing PvE specs (not even necessarily tanking ones from the DB comment). There are plenty of PvP builds that don't use PS. The only PvE build that probably may not bother (and I haven't seen it in a long time) is Shadow Frost. And, even then, I don't suppose they wouldn't be allowed to use it for some reason.

Idiggory, in just one post you answered so many of the questions running around my head about frost tanks that I didn't dare ask, its not funny.

nice work. really really helpful. :)